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Friday, December 17, 2010

The Good Fight: How Conflict Can Help Your Idea

I am a fan of using conflict to help develop a team. So I enjoyed The Good Fight: How Conflict Can Help Your Idea, a blog post of Paul Kotter (author of Leading Change). Paul writes: "Some leaders value consensus so much that they feel they need complete agreement on everything. They stamp out disagreements over the issues because they fear their subordinates might get their feelings hurt, some teammates will harbor grudges, or the team could lose cohesiveness. . . . I will say that avoiding conflict can actually be ruinous for achieving buy-in for an idea."

Paul advises: "Good ideas need active, engaged support for a considerable time until they reshape how we think about and do things for the better. To make positive, lasting change, you need to energize people, and at a deep enough level to make buy-in — then ultimate implementation — achievable. And you need conflict to accomplish that."

Read Kotter's blog post at:The Good Fight: How Conflict Can Help Your Idea.About:
Perry Cone practices insurance, compliance and government law, and consults for in-house counsel, from the Tallahassee office of GrayRobinson. He writes from his perspective as a former general counsel, legal executive, and leader in the Florida insurance industry. Visit Perry's blog at www.leadinginhouse.com/

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Any legal commentary provided through this profile is informational only, is not legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Views expressed are those of Perry Cone or quoted sources and do not represent the views of my employer, its owners, affiliates, or management. Perry Cone is an in-house corporate counsel and does not provide legal services to the public.